Actions have consequences, as Anna Karenina famously discovered. That is a lesson now being learned by Oxford student Samuel Williams, who was filmed basking in the acclaim of a group of fellow hate chanters as he proudly revealed his creation to the crowd, “a chant that we’ve been workshopping in Oxford”.
Footage of Williams’ chant has now gone viral. “Gaza, Gaza make us proud, put the Zios in the ground,” he screams, the intensity of his rage deepening with every repeat.
On one level it is pathetic. Williams’ Instagram posts – now deleted – show him enjoying cosplaying at revolution, with pictures in combat fatigues holding machine guns and, of course, the now-essential keffiyeh scarf. The contrast with his preppy features and Harry Potter glasses is genuinely funny.
But there is nothing amusing about incitement to murder: “Put the Zios” – ie me – “in the ground”. Thing is, we Jews have a long experience of what happens when mobs call for us to be put in the ground (and yes, Zio means Jews: only a tiny proportion of Jews are not Zionists). We end up being put in the ground.
This isn’t an issue of freedom of expression: free speech has never included the right to incite murder. It’s said the police are now investigating. Good. Williams and his ilk need to learn that you don’t get a free pass if your anger is directed at Jews. But I won’t hold my breath waiting for the criminal justice system to act. George Orwell came up with the idea of a state-sanctioned Two Minutes Hate in 1984.
But it’s clear from the CPS’s refusal to act in all but a tiny number of cases that the Two Minutes Hate has been treated by the authorities not as a fictional satire but as the playbook for their decision making, with the state standing and watching a mass outpouring of hate.
Not just on the marches, mind. It’s no surprise that Williams is a student, because Jew-hate on campus is now normalised. Last month, Tali, a Jewish student, spoke at a rally against anti-Semitism about her experience at King’s College London. On her very first day there she received these messages:
“Is there a fing Zionist in this group chat?”
“We’ve fished out a Zionist.”
“Get ‘em out.”
“Can’t wait to see you tomorrow, Tali.”
On the first anniversary of the October 7 2023 massacre, she was told:
“Bh get down.”
“You’re not the messiah you think you are.”
“The Zionists are actually everywhere.”
“As a group, we should just band together and carry her out.”
When she went to the KCL “wellness adviser”, she was told that “it may be helpful to try to understand why the other students are behaving this way” towards her.
The only thing unique about Tali’s experience is that she has been prepared to speak openly about the hatred directed to her as a Jew.
This is the milieu in which the likes of Williams “workshop” their hate chants. It is a milieu of poison, and it is getting worse.
Actions have consequences, as Anna Karenina famously discovered. That is a lesson now being learned by Oxford student Samuel Williams, who was filmed basking in the acclaim of a group of fellow hate chanters as he proudly revealed his creation to the crowd, “a chant that we’ve been workshopping in Oxford”.
Footage of Williams’ chant has now gone viral. “Gaza, Gaza make us proud, put the Zios in the ground,” he screams, the intensity of his rage deepening with every repeat.
On one level it is pathetic. Williams’ Instagram posts – now deleted – show him enjoying cosplaying at revolution, with pictures in combat fatigues holding machine guns and, of course, the now-essential keffiyeh scarf. The contrast with his preppy features and Harry Potter glasses is genuinely funny.
But there is nothing amusing about incitement to murder: “Put the Zios” – ie me – “in the ground”. Thing is, we Jews have a long experience of what happens when mobs call for us to be put in the ground (and yes, Zio means Jews: only a tiny proportion of Jews are not Zionists). We end up being put in the ground.
This isn’t an issue of freedom of expression: free speech has never included the right to incite murder. It’s said the police are now investigating. Good. Williams and his ilk need to learn that you don’t get a free pass if your anger is directed at Jews. But I won’t hold my breath waiting for the criminal justice system to act. George Orwell came up with the idea of a state-sanctioned Two Minutes Hate in 1984.
But it’s clear from the CPS’s refusal to act in all but a tiny number of cases that the Two Minutes Hate has been treated by the authorities not as a fictional satire but as the playbook for their decision making, with the state standing and watching a mass outpouring of hate.
Not just on the marches, mind. It’s no surprise that Williams is a student, because Jew-hate on campus is now normalised. Last month, Tali, a Jewish student, spoke at a rally against anti-Semitism about her experience at King’s College London. On her very first day there she received these messages:
“Is there a fing Zionist in this group chat?”
“We’ve fished out a Zionist.”
“Get ‘em out.”
“Can’t wait to see you tomorrow, Tali.”
On the first anniversary of the October 7 2023 massacre, she was told:
“Bh get down.”
“You’re not the messiah you think you are.”
“The Zionists are actually everywhere.”
“As a group, we should just band together and carry her out.”
When she went to the KCL “wellness adviser”, she was told that “it may be helpful to try to understand why the other students are behaving this way” towards her.
The only thing unique about Tali’s experience is that she has been prepared to speak openly about the hatred directed to her as a Jew.
This is the milieu in which the likes of Williams “workshop” their hate chants. It is a milieu of poison, and it is getting worse.